Hi everyone,
I’m pretty excited about playing this week. Unfortunately for the last six to eight weeks I’ve had a bad foot injury [tendonitis in my right foot] and I haven’t been able to hit and be on court as much as I’d like.

I’m not going to be able to play singles this week in Esperance, but I am going to play doubles with Alicia Molik and get my career back started there and just play some matches and monitor my foot.

CASEY Dellacqua's long-delayed singles comeback has stalled again. After last week partnering Alicia Molik to reach the doubles semi-finals in Esperance in her first tournament since January, Dellacqua's name has been scratched from this week's Pro Tour event in Kalgoorlie.

Dellacqua, the home-grown darling of the 2008 Australian Open, has pulled out with a foot injury.

Her manager, Paul Kilderry, said Dellacqua was unsure when she would be fit to return, but was still aiming to contest next month's wildcard play-off at Melbourne Park.

The West Australian's left shoulder was reconstructed in February but is now fine. ''Her shoulder's really good, so it's more about getting her foot right,'' Kilderry said yesterday. ''I don't think it's a long-term thing; it's just been a bit frustrating. It's sort of a week-by-week situation at the moment.''

With former Slovak Jarmila Groth, 22, sworn in at a citizenship ceremony in Canberra yesterday and eligible to add immediate depth to local Fed Cup stocks, Melbourne-based Anastasia Rodionova is awaiting the date for her own citizenship test. Both players have been granted exemptions to strict Australian residency rules due to their unavoidable travelling schedules.

''I've been studying for a while now, so I'm ready,'' said Rodionova, who intends to enter qualifying in both Brisbane and Sydney in January. ''I really hope to become an Australian citizen before the Australian tournaments.''

The 27-year-old, who reached the fourth round of this year's US Open and has lived in Melbourne with her Australian partner since the end of 2005, will become the nation's third-highest ranked woman behind Sam Stosur and Jelena Dokic when granted citizenship, having returned to the top-100 after hip surgery last year. Groth peaked at No. 57 in July, but is now recovering from ankle surgery.

Meanwhile, Australia's Commonwealth Games planning is under way for the sport's debut in New Delhi next October. The team will comprise four men and four women, with a maximum of three in each singles draw.

Lleyton Hewitt is reportedly undecided about whether to participate, but Tennis Australia's director of tennis, Craig Tiley, said he remained hopeful that Hewitt's long-time willingness to represent his country would extend beyond Davis Cup and Olympic competition.

''Lleyton will be invited to play, as will all our top players,'' Tiley said. ''This is a new event on the calendar, obviously, and how many players and which players will make themselves available is yet to be seen. If Lleyton makes himself available, that would be great.''

Tiley said the rankings-based selection criteria would be finalised in the new year, and that TA had no security concerns ''at this point'' despite its boycott of this year's Davis Cup tie in India because it was not confident the safety of its players could be guaranteed.

And Serena Williams' Australian Open fate is expected to be decided later this week when the International Tennis Federation's grand slam committee meets in London. Williams faces a potential ban as a result of her tirade at the US Open against a line judge. Recent comments from ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti suggest that disqualification is unlikely.

You have to wonder if these continual injury setbacks mean she should just sit singles out for the summer. I mean she is going to be grossly under prepared (match wise) and might let the pressure get to her a bit too much (like last summer). I don't want to see her rushing back to the court, perhaps she should come back for the 25s in Feb

It was a great week by Casey to win the playoff. She certainly didnt play great in the final but I enjoyed her scream and fist pump when she won the 2nd set.

Fitness wise she looks OK - might be body type, but I expected her to look a bit more toned and lean.

She does need to work on her body language, she has a bit of the Lindsay Davenport slump happening when things aren't going her way. I was expecting some more up-beat body language (like Molik) but Casey moped around the court for alot of the final. Maybe she was extremely tired from 6 matches in 7 days - something's she not used to recently.

Either way - don't know how fruitful this Aussie summer will be for her with her lack of match play but even a win or two will set her on her way.

Thanks for that louloubelle. Hopefully she can continue to improve on the aspects of her game that need addressing, especially the body language from what I'm hearing. But she is on the right track so far by winning the playoff so maybe she'll only get better from here.

^^ Thanks mate, nice upbeat blog by Casey. The shoulder seemed OK during the playoff if you can judge it by the pace she was serving. She really went for a few serves in the final and hit a few aces, Nothing like the abbreviated and careful serves during the AO09 when she was protecting the shoulder.